Road-guide and travel-indicator for automobiles.



l. FANSHIER.

ROAD GUIDE AND TRAVEL INDICATOR FOR AUTOMOBILES.

APPLICATION FILED JULY II. 1917.

Patented Oct. 15, 1918.

names snares Parana carton JAY FANSHIER, OF WALLA VVALLA, WASHINGTON, ASSIGNOR TO GUIDE MANUFAC- TUBING COMPANY, OF SPOKANE, WASHINGTON, A CORPORATION.

ROAD-GUIDE AND TRAVEL-INDICATOR FOR AUTOMOBILES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 15, 1918.

Application filed July 11, 1917. Serial No.-179,916.

T 0 all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, JAY FANsI-IIER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Walla Walla, in the county of Walla Walla and State of lVashingt-on, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Road- Guides and Travel-Indicators for Automobiles, of which the following is a specifica tion, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to automobile attachments, and particularly to means for indicating to the driver of the car successive locations at which the car arrives and indicating the incidental features of the country through which the automobile is passing,

road branches, garages, gasolene stations,-

danger zones, etc.

The general object of my invention is to provide a device of this character in which the indicatin ribbon containing the data heretofore referred to is caused to travel across an observation opening in correspondence with the speed of the machine.

A further object of the invention is to provide a construction of this character in which the indicating ribbon or band is kept taut.

And a further object is to provide means compensating for the increase in the eifective diameter of the winding spool caused by the winding up of the ribbon upon the spool.

A further object is to provide very simple means whereby the indicating mechanism may be disconnected from the driving shaft, which, as previously stated, is operatively connected to be driven from one of the wheels of the car.

Other ob ects will appear in the course of the following description.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a front elevation of my indicating attachment partly broken away;

Fig. 2 is a section on the line 22 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical section through the winding spool 33 and its attached parts, showing the manner in which the winding spool is held in engagement with the shaft 22; and

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the door.

Referring to these drawings, 10 designates a casing generally, which casing is divided into two sections by the vertical wall 11. The section 12 is adapted to contain the indicating ribbon or band and the section 13 to contain the mechanism whereby the band is driven. For the purpose of driving the indicating band, I provide a flexible shaft 14, which is driven from one of the wheels of the machine by means of the, usual bev eled gear wheel 15 engaging with the beveled gear wheel on the hub of the wheel, this mechanism being the same as that ordinarily used for actuating speedometers. This shaft extends upward into the casing 13 and through this casing and the shaft is illustrated as passing into a speedometer casing 16 having the usual speedometer therein. Inasmuch as this speedometer does not form any part of my invention and may be of any ordinary form, I have not attempted to illustrate its internal construction.

Mounted upon the flexible shaft 1 1 is a worm l7 and mounted upon a shaft 18 extending longitudinally through the casing 13 is a worm gear 19 engaged by the worm 17 and driven thereby. The large worm gear 19 is shiftable into or out of engagement with the worm 17 in a manner as will be hereafter described. I have illustrated gear wheel 23. This smaller gear wheel 23 meshes with an idler pinion 24 in turn meshing with a gear wheel 25 mounted upon a shaft 26. The shaft 26 extends into the section 12 of the casing and mounted on this shaft is a roller 27. Rotatably mounted upon a stub shaft 28 is a winding roller 29.

One wall of the casing is formed with a display opening 30 and disposed behind this display opening 30 is a guide plate 31, the

upper end of which is inwardly turned or deflected so that a ribbon 32 passing from the winding roller 29 may be brought down between the guide plate 31 and the wall of the section and passed beneath the driving roller 27 Mounted upon the shaft 22 and rotating with this shaft is a roller 33 constituting a winding roller, the shaft 22 being a stub shaft and the roller 33 being removably disposed upon this shaft. -The extremity of the band, tape or ribbon-32 is respectively against the rollers 29 and 33 and hold these rollers in place upon their respective shafts and also act to brake these rollers and prevent their overrunning. The inner end of the roller 33 carries a disk 38 and disposed between this disk and the partition wall 11 is a bowed spring 39, the extremities of which bear frictionally against this disk. The roller 33 is loosely mounted upon the shaft 22 but operative connection between the roller 33 and the shaft 22 is secured by the frictional engagement of the spring 39 with the disk 38 in the manner which will be obvious. Therefore, while the roller 33 will normally rotate with the shaft 22, it is obvious that a slippage of the roller 33 is provided for.

The ribbon 32 is provided along one margin with a graduated scale 40 indicating miles and fractions of miles and the remainder of the ribbon is provided with'indicia indicating features of the road which are of importance to the traveler. I have indicatedsome of these indicia. Thus there is a sym bol to be used on the ribbon indicating a railroad crossing, D may indicate a danger zone, where slow running is advisable, R and L may indicate right or left turns to be taken, an arrow may be used to indicate that the machine is to go straight ahead at turns in the roads, the initials G and GG may indicate gasolene stations and combined garages and gasolene stations, etc. The meaning ofvthese Various symbols, initial letters,

etc.,' may be given upon a direction sheet on the inside of a door 35 or in any other convenient place.

In .the operation of this invention, the driving mechanism rotates the feed roller 27 atany desired speed per mile that the machine travels. Preferably about two inches of the tape or ribbon will pass a given point on the margin of the display opening per I mile and the driver of the car can readily see the danger zone, railroad crossings, etc., one mile in advance by merely glancing at the ribbon or tape as it passes across the display opening. He will not need to read up the directions, as it is necessary where a direction book is used, nor stop at all in order to find the way, but by glancing from time to time at the guide ribbon as it is di played he can tell a mile ahead all of the features toward which the car is approaching. As the tape winds up upon the winding roller 33 and the effective diameter of this roller is thereby increased, the slippage of the roller with relation to the shaft 22 will cause the roller 33 to run in accordance with the feed of the ribbon from the roller 29. If it be desired at any time to rotate the ribbon reversely, this can be easily done by depressing the roller 3% so as to loosen the ribbon from its engagement with the feed roller 27 and rotating the spool or roller 29 in a reverse direction, thus unwinding the ribbon from the take-up spool or roller 33 or on the other hand, the take-up spool 33 may be rotated so as to carry the ribbon. to any desired point and then be released, it being understood that the roller 29 is mounted upon the shaft 28 in the same manner as is the roller 23. Again if it be desired for any reason to disconnect the mechanism from the drive shaft, the lever 20 may be shifted to carry the gear wheel 19 out of engagement with the worm 17 and then the mechanism will remain inoperative. This permits the machine to be used for side trips or to be run off direct roads.

One of the advantages of the mechanism resides in its simplicity and the cheapness with which it may be constructed and its ease of operation. A further advantage resides in the simplicity of the means Whereby the tape or ribbon is driven. This not only cheapens the mechanism but prevents much wear on the tape or ribbon. A. further advantage lies in the manner in which the road indications are disposed upon the ribbon which permits the ribbon to be read as it runs.

Having described my invention, what I claim is 1. In a road guide for automobiles, a casing having a display opening, winding shafts one of which is operatively connected to a source of power, winding rollers detachably mounted upon the shafts and having friction disks, springs carried by the shafts rotating therewith and frictionally bearing against said disks, a driving roller operatively connected to the source of power, a ribbon having indicia wound upon said winding roller passing behind the display opening and passing partly around the driving roller, means urging the ribbon into.

IAD

frictional contact with the driving roller, and means yieldingly urging the winding rollers against the springs carried by the shafts, said last named means being movable out of said urging position to permit the removal of the winding rollers from the shafts.

2. In a road guide for automobiles, a casing having a display opening, winding shafts one operatively connected to a source of power, winding rollers detachably mounted upon the shafts and having friction disks. springs carried by the shafts and frictionally bearing against said friction disks, a driving roller, a ribbon having indicia wound upon said winding rollers passing behind the. display opening and passing partly around the driving roller, means urging the ribbon and driving roller into frictional contact, and means yieldingly holding the winding rollers upon their respective shafts, said means comprising a door to the casing and springs mounted upon said door and yieldingly engaging against the adjacent ends of the winding rollers.

15. In a device of the character described, a casing, a shaft mounted therein and operatively connected to a source of power, a winding roller mounted looselyiupon the shaft, a friction disk and coacting springs, one of said parts being mounted upon the winding roller and the other upon the shaft, the frictional engagement between the springs and disk causing the common rotation of the shaft and roller, a door closing said casing, and a spring on said door which, when the door is closed, bears against the end of the winding roller and urges the disk and springs into frictional contact and holds the winding roller in place on the shaft.

4. In a road guide, a casing having a display opening and having a door, a driving shaft, winding shafts entering the casing and one of which is operatively connected to the driving shaft, a driving roller disposed within the casing and operatively connected to the driving shaft, winding rollers slidingly engaged with the winding shafts and having disks at their inner ends, bowed springs mounted upon the winding shafts and bearing frictionally against said disks, a ribbon containing indicia Wound upon said winding shafts and passing behind the display openin and passing partly around the driving rolIer, a roller resiliently urged toward the driving roller and holding the ribbon thereagainst, and springs mounted on the door and resiliently engaging the winding rollers and resiliently urging them against said first named springs.

In testimony I hereunto aflix my signature in the presence of two Witnesses.

JAY FANSHIER.

- Witnesses:

E. F. BARKER, A. C. KENWORTHY. 

